In my last post, I talked about surviving criticism and disappointment. Today, we explore another way to grow from setbacks.
Case in point: I was so sure my WIP was a perfect fit for a certain small but prestigious publisher. This will be my big break!
Then I received the typical, canned auto-rejection.
At this point, I had barely submitted anything and was naive enough to believe that if you’re rejected by one or two publishers, you must be a hack.
The frustrating part of querying is that they never tell you exactly why it’s rejected. It may have nothing to do with your writing.
Maybe they just accepted a similar story. Maybe your story included elements that weren’t suited for their audience. Maybe the editor didn’t have their coffee yet. It’s like throwing darts in the dark.
But the next time I submitted the story:
About 6 months later, I got an acceptance from a cool indie publisher.
A year later, the story made it to the semifinals of two large competitions.
Last year, it was published with a cover by a wickedly talented designer and two blurbs from legendary writers.
Every writer lives life standing on a precipice. We stand at the edge of the cliff, clutching our manuscripts in our hands in a white-knuckled grip. Our eyes staring out into the distance, staring into the abyss. We assume that if we let our pages slip from our fingers, they won’t take flight. We imagine each page taking the fall down a deep canyon. We see them slowly drifting to their destination, never to be read because those on the other side of the chasm aren’t willing to reach out a hand and pull them away from the gaping hole of obscurity.
A lot of people think that living on the edge means having sexual encounters with some guy they met on the Internet (or nowadays on a dating app). While looking for love in all the most interesting of places, and some of them downright suspect, can be harrowing, it’s more foolish than living on the edge.
Some people’s definition of living on the edge encompasses drinking, doing drugs, and having a ruckus party with loud music and cops coming to shut it down. Sorry, that was never my idea of fun anymore than taking the chance dating someone I don’t know and possibly becoming the next special on the eleven o’clock news. I can just see the blazing headlines now. “Blind Woman Sexually Assaulted by Unidentified Assailant.” The article would start something like: woman, 43, who can’t see her shadow, had the nerve to date someone from the internet and now wonders why she can’t identify him. Okay, maybe the reporters would be a little more PC, but why should they? I should have known better, right? Well, that would be my mother’s line anyway.
Living on the edge isn’t about the stupid mistakes people make, like bumping into the wall that I should know is there and spilling whatever drink I have in my hand, forgetting where I spilled it by the time I get back with the cleaning cloth. Then finding out later, as my shoe makes this smacking sound as I lift it from the sticky spot, that I didn’t clean the right spot after all. Can you tell this happens to me rather frequently?
In any case, living on the edge is about the risks we take. Risk-taking isn’t impulsively walking across the street on a green light and getting hit by the first car that comes along by a driver that’s not paying attention. Risk-taking isn’t going bungee jumping and depending on the cord to remain solvent and not drop you unceremoniously on your rather fragile scull instead of jerking you back up into the air.
No, I’m talking about the kind of risk-taking that makes your soul quake and your knees nock. It’s that risk that a man takes when he asks a woman to marry him. It’s the risk that a woman takes when she tells the man she loves how she feels about him.
Everything in your world stops. It’s as if there’s no air. Your lungs even freeze. Everything in the world depends on the response you receive. You’re waiting with bated breath.
And even though, you know you’ll live through a rejection, you know a part of you will never be the same again if you receive one. Something fundamental within you, about you, is about to change. The answer of yes or no, will cement the change and determine which turn the change will take.
And so, my idea of living on the edge is standing at the edge of that cliff. My wonderfully written manuscript, or so I thought, clutched in my trembling fingers. “I have my author’s bio written, see?” I want to say. “I have a whole story here: beginning, middle, and end. Can’t you see how brilliant I’ve become? I’ve grown so much. I researched, wrote, edited and edited again. I put a cover letter together. I am ready. Are you ready?”
Still, there’s a part of me that knows it’s not going to be good enough, but the pages I sat over, writing, suffered over, editing, prayed over, formatting and gathering, and finally trusting my work to another soul other than mine and my maker’s, are going out into the world.
Without a second thought, I leap from the edge, hoping my pages will fly on their own and just one individual on the other side will find my work half as brilliant as I occasionally think it is.
Come and leap with me, as we live together on the edge.
What is life on the edge like for you?
Clennell Anthony
Clennell Anthony resides in Florida and was a storyteller before she could write. Her specialties are prose, angst, delightful passion, and romance. She has a degree in journalism from Georgia Southern University and a Masters of Fine Arts in creative writing from Lesley University. She is also a write-in host at the Writers’ Mastermind.
As a writer, I know the submissions process can be a huge mental and emotional drain. Not only is it time-consuming and tedious, there are the nail-biting weeks or months afterward waiting for an answer.
If the answer is no, a writer must go through a period of grief and summon the strength to get back out and submit again.
But being rejected often has nothing to do with the quality of the writing.
As the contest creator, I was the gatekeeper and was forced to disqualify stories for the silliest of reasons. In many cases, the writing was great, and it was frustrating because the issues that prevented the story from being in the competition were completely avoidable.
It pains me to see talented writers sabotaging themselves
when it comes to submissions, writers who are racking up needless rejections
that are killing their self-confidence.
So, as a person who not only has suffered rejections, but has also had to read through hundreds of submissions, this is my advice.
1. Not following directions – Read the submission guidelines and contest rules until they’re branded into your brain. Then read them again. Before you send in your manuscript, read them again. Each magazine, agent, or publisher will have slightly different guidelines. Pay attention to requirements for formatting, cover letters, submission length, blurbs, bios, and more. Be especially wary of the next items I discuss in this list.
2. Word count – During our Spring Writing Contest, many submissions were below or above the 1K to 5K word count. I couldn’t understand why. I could only think the writer ignored suggestion #1—carefully read the submission guidelines. There is no excuse to ignore the word count requirement.
If your story is too short, fill it in. Find areas where you can expand. Add some more to detail to the setting. Incorporate a new scene to reveal character.
Likewise, if your story or book is too long, trim some fat. Skim
off anything that is not crucial to the plot. Remove unnecessary description.
Kill darlings without mercy.
If the word count is too far off to feasibly adjust, move on.
2. Mistakes – No matter how interesting a story is, typos and grammatical errors are sure to turn off any reader, especially literary professionals. It says to the organization that you don’t care enough to send your best work—either that, or you’re an incompetent writer who didn’t even realize you made any mistakes.
Being a good writer means you know how to write. This includes grammar and punctuation. If you’re struggling with the technical aspects of writing, take a class so you can execute with confidence.
Then find an editor. Even if you’re an English major, everyone makes mistakes and it’s hard to see them in your own work. Send your work to a professional first.
3. Submitting the totally wrong thing – The contest here at Let’s Get Published was for short stories in any genre of fiction. Short stories are a standalone art form with a very specific structure, yet I received many of what very obviously were chapters of a book. Some authors left the chapter heading in the document! Even the incomplete entries that didn’t have chapter headings were very noticeably just chapters, scenes, or excerpts. I was also puzzled to receive poetry and non-fiction (again, see #1)!
Don’t risk annoying agents and publishers hoping that by some cosmic chance that they’ll be so captivated by your work they’ll ignore the fact that you broke their guidelines. Make sure you’re sending them the material they work with or you’re wasting both their time, and more importantly, yours.
4. Not familiarizing yourself with the agent or publisher – From my personal experience as a writer, I know it’s tempting to jump after every submission call you see. I’ve submitted without ever having read anything from the publishing house, agent, or magazine and ended up rejected. I would have saved everyone time if I had sampled from their stable of writers first.
Read up on the writers your desired publisher works with to see how you compare. Beyond the genre, ask yourself if your style, theme, and subject matter are good fit. What is the publisher known for? Do they have any non-negotiables when it comes to sex, violence, or other graphic material? Do they stick to certain tropes or subvert them? This will help you avoid sending your work into places where it’s not likely to be accepted.
In closing
It’s a shame to think that some talented writers become discouraged or give up entirely because of rejections when they’re only crime is failing to submit properly.
Remember that agents, publishers, and writing contest judges are people too. Respect them and your work enough to be professional. Stop wasting your time and energy chasing after calls that don’t suit your story. Don’t rush to submit or send in sloppy drafts. Take your time. Do your homework.
You might submit less, but you’ll be submitting effectively. This will exponentially increase your chances of getting more acceptance letters and contest wins. It’s definitely a quality not quantity game here. Treat your writing like the one-of-a-kind art that it is.
